A30 works have been 'hard work' for businesses

The dual carriageway is complete but associated works are still under way

Businesses are welcoming the opening of a new dual carriageway in Cornwall.

The £330m project to dual nine miles (14km) of the A30 between Carland Cross and Chiverton Cross took four years to complete.

But business owners said it had cost them time, money and footfall.

National Highways said associated works still needed to be completed and the A30 might be closed in the autumn "as part of the completion work".

The dual carriageway project cost £330m

Alan Prowse, who runs an agricultural engineering company in St Allen, said the A30 roadworks had cost his firm £300,000 in turnover due to an 80% drop in footfall.

"I'm putting it down to the road because people haven't been able to get to us," he said.

St Allen parish has been split in two by the A30 and the planned tunnel has not been finished.

Mr Prowse, who owns land on the other side of the road, said it was a 20 mile (32km) journey there and back, where previously it had been three to four miles (5 - 6km).

He said he had asked National Highways for compensation but it had been refused.

Dan Smith said the project had been "hard work" for him and his team

Dan Smith, a plumbing and heating supplier near the Chiverton Cross interchange, said the A30 project has been "hard work".

At one point, he said his team had to drive up to the next junction, Chybucca, and then drive back on themselves, which "took us about half-an-hour to get about 20m (65ft) from our office".

'A huge difference'

St Ives fishmonger, Matthew Stevens, said the construction works had cost his firm "tens and tens of thousands of pounds".

He said he had eight or nine vans which travelled the whole of Devon and Cornwall each day.

During the roadworks, he said an average journey from St Ives to Padstow took one hour 50 minutes, but when one lane was open last week the journey was reduced to one hour.

He said the full opening of the A30 would make "a huge difference".

Wildflowers have been sown on the banks of the A30 to mark Armed Forces Day

A spokesperson for National Highways thanked people in Cornwall for their "patience" through the years of construction.

They said: "However, there remains a lot of work to do on local roads, footpaths, cycle routes, bridleways and structures in order to close down the site and fully complete the project.

"In the autumn we may also require some overnight closures on the A30 as part of the completion work."

In February, National Highways said no compensation was available for people who lived close to the works.